CD-Rom/Virtual Drives Missing and Hard Disk Controllers Malfunctioning

[margaretann]

I have no idea how this happened or how to fix it, but I have two major problems with my computer:

1. My CD-Rom and Virtual Drives have disappeared. The CD-Rom shows up in the BIOS but not in Windows Explorer or in the System Properties Device Manager.

2. The Hard Disk Controllers are malfunctioning. Specifically, (also under the System Properties Device Manager) the Hard Disk Controllers section displays the following:

Primary Bus Master IDE Controller (dual fifo) - Properties/Device Status is "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all of the drivers installed. (Code 10)" It prompts me to try updating the device drivers for the device. However, doing so results in the following message: "The best device driver Windows found is already installed for this device."

Secondary Bus Master IDE Controller (dual fifo) - Properties/Device Status is "This device is either not present, not working properly, or does not have all of the drivers installed. (Code 10)" It prompts me to try updating the device drivers for the device. However, doing so results in the following message: "The best device driver Windows found is already installed for this device."

VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller - Properties/Device Status is "This device is working properly."

Note: When viewing devices by connection instead of type, the Primary and Secondary Bus Master IDE Controllers are listed as extensions of the VIA Bus Master PCI IDE Controller.

For anyone with technical expertise regarding these problems, PLEASE write and let me know what I can do to resolve the issues and get my computer functioning properly, again. I appreciate your help.

[saphalline]

This sounds odd...

Well, we'll need more info about this like your system specs and your OS version and what virtual drive app you're using. Then we'll need to know about any changes that have been made to your system recently, and your security status (A/V, anti-spyware, firewall, etc).

My first suggestion is to disable your virtual drive app and try reinstalling your chipset drivers. If that doesn't work, start with the basics and move on up. Is everything recognized in the BIOS? How about disconnecting drives? What does that do to Windows? Is everything jumpered correctly? Drive cables secure? Were any of the virtual drives mapped to drive letters of existing physical drives? Things like that.

[Sylvander]

In the BIOS Setup, make sure the Primary & Secondary IDE controllers are enabled.

[Paul Komski]

Which operating system please?

Suggest try removing the CDROM and see if the virtual drive re-appears.

[Sylvander]

That taught me something.
Disabled my Secondary Controller and my Optical drives were no longer auto-detected and displayed within the BIOS Setup.
Since your drives show in your BIOS Setup, your IDE controllers must be enabled and functioning methinks.

[Quantax]

A few months ago, when Win 98 on one of my PC's wouldn't shut down, I eventually saw that same malfunction notice in the hard disk controller in the Device Manager. And I finally traced it to the IDE ribbon cable. Was rather surprised because the cable wasn't even that old.

[no-mbr]

Typically IDE controllers display this type of error when there are flaws in the devices driver information file. In other cases an incorrectly cabled device can cause this type of error.

If you did nothing to your system to cause this type of failure, the first thing to try is simply selecting the Ide controllers in the device manager and uninstalling them. Restarting the machine will rediscover and subsequently reload the driver with hopefully - the correct settings.

Errors in the device manager are almmst always generated by software conflcits. BIOS errors generally report "real" hardware failures.